Breaking loose
by Shadeless
Summary: Fear the spirits you have opened your doors for. You’ll never get rid of them. Sequel to Hells Angels
1. Chapter 1

**Breaking loose**  
By Shadeless

**Author's note:** /Harhar/ Poor Hot Rod, he won't know what hit him.  
There's a link in my profile to my lifejournal, where I posted the alt-forms I selected.

"Blubb" ... speech  
-Blubb- ... radio transmission  
_Blubb_ ... thoughts  
/Blubb/ ... bond

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own.

* * *

Lissom was bored out of his processor. Well, nothing new about that.

He had, after all, been staring at the wall outside his cell for Primus alone knew how long by now. It had yet to do something interesting. His brothers weren't helping.

At least their emotions bubbling at the edge of his awareness provided some kind of distraction. The upside to this whole mess was that he was relatively sure by now the Autobots weren't going to torture them.

* * *

Rodimus watched the mechs Red Alerts screens were showing. There where six of them.

Six. In one night. After a lifetime of unsuccessful persuasion through Optimus Prime. Maybe there was hope for unity after all. He ended this thought forcefully. It never did him good to brood about the former Prime. Especially when he was supposed to have a meeting with his officers.

Who were currently arguing loudly. Which was the reason he had spaced out on them in the first place.

"They are dangerous! They will betray us as soon as we set them free!" Red Alert paranoia was at an all-time high. Had been since they had returned and brought the Decepticons currently located in their brig with them. Not that Rodimus blamed him. They **were** the enemy after all. "Who knows, they could be trying something right now!!" Ok, enough was enough.  
Giving his best to NOT show his weariness and, how he suspected, failing miserably, the Prime put an end to the discussion. "Red Alert, all of your brig cameras are trained on them. How in Primus name are they supposed to try something? They don't even **move**!"

Blue optics glinted dangerously. "Exactly… I hadn't even thought of that…" Rodimus felt a brief flicker of hope in his spark. "They are hacking our systems through wireless connection!" Which was squished immediately. He nearly groaned.

"Right. They are **not** hacking our systems, ok? Calm down." The security officer narrowed his optics at him suspiciously but settled to muttering. Ignoring the ache in his processor, the young leader looked over the rest of the assembled bots. "I think Red Alerts opinion is clear. To which conclusion did you come?"

As soon as their guests had been introduced to the brig, a heated debate had started. The majority of his commanding staff thought along the same lines as their security chief. Well, maybe not as extreme, but still. So the general opinion on the mechs was that they couldn't be trusted. Something Rodimus Prime agreed to without second thought.

However, he didn't like the idea of 'locking them up and throwing the key away' as he had heard Cliffjumper state in the rec. room recently. Sending them away was also out of question. At the first sugestion of this course of action, First Aid had protested fiercely. For, if they really had deserted… It would be plain murder, as the medic had eloquently put it.

No one seemed to want to be the first to speak.

Finally, Kup had had enough. He made a sound akin to a human clearing of his throat. "We, for the most part, agree that, no matter what the faction, we can't just toss them out. Of course they'll have to be under surveillance. 24-7."

Rodimus nodded, optics again locked on the screens. "Of course."

* * *

The sound of a door sliced through the silence. They tensed immediately. Not that anyone who wasn't in on their bond would have noticed it.

Six pairs of red optics watched the incoming 'bots with varying intensity of mistrust. Lissom reached out to smooth the ripples of fear in his brothers minds. Uncurling from his position, he strode over to the energy bars as if he owned the place, grace and confidence oozing off him. Not even his gestalt mates would feel his own apprehension, he made sure of that. No need to worry them further.

A familiar figure stopped in front of his cell. Blue optics clashed with red. Then the visitor reached forward, deactivating the bars. Terror, like ice, welled up in his spark. It wasn't his own. Had it been he could at least have discarded it.

He tried not to get distracted, trusting his calmer brothers to deal with it.

Rodimus Prime turned, motioning his prisoner to follow him. Doing as he was told, Lissom felt the two bots who had come with the Autobot leader flanking him. His shoulders tensed. After a few corridors, the only thing telling him in which direction they were moving was the feeling of his brothers growing more distant.

/Where does he take you?/ Fear for his safety, as well as of being separated, drifted towards his mind with the question. Not even his own nervousness could make him snap at Wolfcub. Always in need of reassurance, contact.

/I don't know, little one./ The anxiousness in the others presence peaked. He sent a soothing brush of positive emotion for his brother. /Don't worry. I'll be alright./ Wolfcub relaxed slightly. So very trusting.

Lissom nearly collided with Prime when he stopped in front of a double door. With a last touch he untangled himself of the conversation, blocking his bond. Just in case.

As he was lead into the room, he was glad he had done it.

* * *

First Aid looked up as the group entered the med bay. A silver bot was standing behind Rodimus, watched over by Hound and Bumblebee. A good choice. Those two wouldn't be quick to judge.

"First Aid, this is Lissom." A hand motioned towards the medic. "First Aid, our CMO." The 'Con seemed to tense slightly.

_No longer Decepticon. Not if what they say is true. _The Protectobot nodded in in greeting, setting the last things down for the check-up. "I'm ready, if you would come here so I can scan you. This shouldn't take long."

As the silver mech settled on the repair table, never taking his optics of the medic, Rodimus stepped closer, crossing his arms. "You said you wanted to join the Autobots." A distracted nod. "Ok. We are ready to offer you and your friends a place to stay and rations to live off. You'll have to live with restrictions, though, until we are sure you're not here to sabotage something or spy on us. What is your area of expertise?"

Lissom, finally taking his attention off the medic, as he tried nothing that was overly uncomfortable, glanced at him in surprise. It was the first emotion to show up clearly readable on his face for Rodimus to see.

"The battlefield of course. With different additional skills depending on who you ask about. You're taking us in? Just like that?"

"I should have expected you to be fighters… Not just like that, as I said you'll be restricted in where you go, what you do and so on. Most likely there will be someone with each of you all the time." This made the mech frown.

"You're going to separate us?" He sounded unsure.

"Is this important to you?"

"To some of us."

"Then I won't." The Prime tried not to cringe at the thought of in how many languages some 'bots would curse him when they found out what he had just promised.  
That was the moment First Aid reached for Lissom's spark panel for an investigation. The next thing he knew was that he collided with a hard surface. In the second it took Rodimus to stare at the fallen medic in shock before he turned back was enough for the mech to roll over the table, jump up and position himself with his back pressed to the opposite end of the room.

Three guns were pointed at him immediately. Only then did the Autobot leader notice that something was off. The before smooth movements were spoiled by small trembles running through the sleek body, his red optics misted strangely. Unbeknownst to the mechs in front of him, Lissom was fighting with all he had. /Abscond, you IDIOT! Get out of my relays! Do you want to **kill** us?!/ His brothers spark flinched back.

/You– He-/ The panic surging through him killed his anger instantly.

/He is just doing a check-up. He doesn't try to hurt me./ Sometimes talking to Abscond was harder than comforting a sparkling. It was definitely worse than comforting Wolfcub. **He** believed you.

/We didn't expect him to do this. We should have prevented it./ Volte's neutral voice filtered through the haze of emotion that was his brother Abscond.

/It wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have relaxed enough for it to work./ With that he shook of the others thoughts and feelings.

Only to face reality in all it's glory. Nothing like a gun barrel to welcome you in the world of the aware and functioning. _Fantastic._ The green bot seemed to inspect the medic. _If he's damaged, I'm dead metal._

-

Rodimus watched the Decepticon suspiciously. _The trembling has stopped. Weird._ Aloud he adressed Hound. "How is First Aid?"

The medic heaved himself up. "I'm fine. Just a few dents." He steeled himself and strode towards his patient, ignoring Bumblebees protests. "What **was** that?"

Lissom relaxed, though he made sure this time that his control over the bond didn't slip. He sighed. "Abscond."

The Autobots stared at him, perplexed. "What?"

Looking at the medics visor, he got ready to spil one of their best kept secrets. "Abscond. You have seen the silver-orange mech while observing us, without question. That would be him." That only caused the three weapon carrying mechs to look even more confused. Contrary to that the medics body language indicated understanding as well as surprise.

"You – You are a gestalt!"

Lissome condemned himself to his fate. "Yes." After a moment he added: "My apologies about that. My brother panicked when he felt you reaching for my spark."

To his surprise the soft spoken mech nodded immediately. "Completely understandable. Could I now exercise the last tests? Is he calm enough?"

The silver mech grimaced beneath his face plate. "If we wait for that, we wait forever. I should be able to keep control this time, though."

* * *

Rodimus Prime was one tired mech. Getting each of the motor bikes to their check-up, then back to the brig, where they would have to stay until arrangements were made, had been trying.  
Thinking of Abscond's alone made him feel ancient. That mech clearly deserved his name. Pinning him down had taken two of his brothers for help and thrice as long as any of them had taken for the whole session. He made a mental note to be extra nice to Kup, at least for a while. _If I am as hard to watch over… _The other four had been surprisingly compliant. _A gestalt. If they really aren't deceiving us, that would be a great improvement to the army.  
_Hopefully. If certain mechs had their flight instincts under control on the battle field. The bizarre thought that Galvatron had sent them to drive him insane appeared in his CPU.


	2. Chapter 2

"Blubb" speech

-Blubb- radio transmission

Blubb thoughts

/Blubb/ bond

Chapter 2

Today was the day. The day he had dreaded. The day he would let hell loose on Autobot City. Ultra Magnus was going to kill him within orns. He was sure of it.

Again, he sifted through what he had gathered about the gestalt team that would soon be moved to it's new quarters. They seemed to be very good at doing nothing at all, which in turn gave nothing away. It bugged Red Alert to no end.

_Lissom, gestalt-team leader. Sleek, not very big, but not to be underestimated._ As had been proved when he had hauled First Aid without creaking a joint that one time. _Fast, very good control of his servos._

_Abscond._ Rodimus nearly got CPU ache **thinking** the name. _I'm never going to be impatient with Red Alert again. _By watching him closely after what had happened in the med bay it had become clear very quickly that Abscond was uncomfortable with everyone, his brothers aside, as well as with being alone. That resulted in staying as far away from whoever came close as physically possible, a knack of watching his surroundings with flickering optics and constant fidgeting. Curiously, that stopped as soon as he was left alone with one or more of his gestalt team. _They calm him down. As if he relyed on them for protecting him. Weird enough with him being bigger than Lissom and not as fragile looking either._

The next name on his mental list was Volte. _About the same height as Abscond, though less bulky. Apart from that I'm drawing a blank with him. He seems absolutely stoic. Nothing more to gather._

Nearly the same could be said for Tract. The only difference was that this mech seemed more prone to solving his problems with force. _Poor Bluestreak._ The gunner had been stationed for a shift in the brig. After a few hours of him running his vocaliser, Tract had, simple as that, punched a hole into the wall, fist coming to a halt next to the Autobots helmet. And that was that. _He's much stronger than he looks._ Though he looked strong enough, being the biggest as well as broadest of his team.

That left the last two members: Lamb, whose name he was still unsure off, simply because he couldn't belive that a mech half a head taller than Jazz, mostly black with flame vinyls would be called after something so fluffy and nice. _I need to ask Lissom about that._ Lamb had started pacing on the fifth day after the medical check-ups.

And Wolfcub. Another peculiar name. _Though I really shouldn't be surprised._ He was the smallest of the team, even Lissom had to look down when talking to him. Apart from that they hadn't been able to gather anything about him, maybe that he was more sensible than the others. He had immediately reacted when Tract had scared off Bluestreak, seemingly trying to calm his brother.

Running out of distractions he scanned his desk again, in desperate hope of a stray data pad he had overlooked. Nothing. Damn. _If Ultra Magnus ever finds out that I'd rather work than face him, __**knowing**__ he'll be mad… _The image of his city commander bribing the twins into causing havok appeared in his CPU._ Argh. _Of course, the second in command had known what was going on from the very start. There was just a difference in knowing you had a probably half-crazed Decepticon gestalt-team in the brig and knowing you had it on the loose in your city._ I'm dead._


End file.
